Panaji bypoll debacle was expected, says Congress

Goa Congress on Monday said it had expected the party's debacle in the recently-held Panaji bypoll, but claimed that it managed to retain its vote bank in the constituency, which had been favouring BJP since the last two decades.

Panaji: Goa Congress on Monday said it had expected the party's debacle in the recently-held Panaji bypoll, but claimed that it managed to retain its vote bank in the constituency, which had been favouring BJP since the last two decades.

Congress candidate Surendra Furtado lost the election to BJP's Siddharth Kuncolienkar in a four-corner fight, which saw both the independent candidates losing their deposits.

Congress had polled around 4,000 votes in the last assembly election and managed to get similar number of votes in the Friday's bypoll.

"The election was fought against all the odds. The BJP government was working against the party candidate," GPCC media cell chairman Ramakant Khalap told reporters today.

Khalap said the results were not unexpected for both BJP and Congress. "But don't consider this as a referendum on BJP or Congress. When certain party is in the power, electorate always favours it," he said.

Congress said the silver lining in the dark cloud is that the party has managed to retain its base in the constituency.

The bypoll was necessitated after the resignation of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who took up assignment as the Defence Minister.